Rod brake for vertically adjustable post member



Dec. 29, 1959 E. A. WRIGHT ETAL 2,918,989

ROD BRAKE FOR VERTICALLY ADJUSTABLE POST MEMBER Fi led Jan. 27, 1958 i s Sheets-Sheet 1 I221) elbtopa E.fl.H1?L Z217 G.E.D

pdii /g flip Dec. 29, 1959 E. A. WRIGHT ETAL 2,913,989

ROD BRAKE FOR VERTICALLY ADJUSTABLE POST MEMBER Filed Jan. 27, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 29, 1959 E. A. WRIGHT ET AL 2,918,989

ROD BRAKE FOR VERTICALLY ADJUSTABLE POST MEMBER :5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 27, 1958 ROD BRAKE FOR VERTICALLY ADJUSTABLE POST MEMBER Ernest Arthur Wright, Northfield, Birmingham, and Geoitrey Ernest Dnflin, Redditch, England, assrgnors to Kalamazoo Limited, Northfield, England Application January 27, 1958, Serial No. 711,204

7 Claims priority, application Great Britain January 31, 1957 1 Claim. (Cl. 188-67) This invention relates to'an article of furniture of the kind in which a table top, seat, frame or other part adapted to support articles or persons, and hereinafter termed the carrier, is vertically adjustable relative to a base.

The object of the invention is to provide means for effecting the vertical adjustment in a convenient form.

According to the invention an article of furniture of the kind specified comprises in combination at least one vertical post connected to the carrier and axially slidable in the base, a catch piece associated with the or each post, the or each catch piece being pivotally mounted on the base and having an aperture in which the associated post is engaged, resilient means urging the or each catch piece in a direction to retain the associated post against axial movement in the base and manually operable means for moving the catch piece or pieces in opposition to said resilient means, said manually operable means being inoperative to move the or at least one catch piece to a post releasing position whilst the load upon the carrier exceeds a predetermined weight.

An example of the invention as applied to an article of furniture for supporting trays containing index cards Will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of the article to a smaller scale than the other views,

nited States PatentO Figure 2 is a sectional plan through the body part of the base,

Figures 3 and 4 are sectional side views mutually at right angles of the body part of the base, and

Figure 5 is a section on the line 55 of Figure 2 with the casing of the body part omitted for clarity.

The article includes a base comprising a body part 6 mounted on three equispaced and splayed legs -7 each provided with a castor wheel 8. Also at the centre of the body part 6 is a vertically extending leg 9 having a foot 10 which can be moved into contact with the floor or other surface on which the base is resting to restrain the base from movement on the castor wheels. Co'nveniently the foot 10 is spring-loaded in a downward direction and can be raised or lowered by an angularly movable handle 11 located in an inclined slot 12 in the body part. 4

The body part also carries a pair of vertically slidable and spaced tubular posts 13, which are connected at their upper ends to a carrier 14 for supporting removable trays containing the index cards. Associated with each post 13 is a catch piece 15 in the form of a plate which is pivotally mounted on the body part of the base and has an aperture in which the post is engaged. The catch piece is loaded in a downward direction by a spring 16, and the arrangement is such that the spring 16 tends to move the catch piece to a position in which it is oblique I 2,918,989 Patented Dec. 29, 1959 "ice to the post 13 and the edges of the aperture grip the post to retain it from axial movement. Moreover, the power of the spring 16 is desirably chosen so that in the event of the article being lifted by the carrier 14, the latter will not move relative to the base.

To admit of adjustment of the posts 13 (and therefore the carrier 14) relative to the base a manually operable handle 17 is provided on the latter. This handle is mounted on a rotatable shaft 18 which also carries a cam 19 bearing against the intermediate part of a floating release member 20. The release member is in the form of an inverted U-shaped metal strip, the ends of which are bent outwardly and are disposed beneath the pair of catch pieces 15, whilst between each of these ends and the adjacent catch piece is an axially movable plunger 21 loaded towards the adjacent catch piece 15 by means of a spring 22, hereinafter termed a compensating spring.

It will be understood that the weight of the carrier 14 and anything supported upon it assists the springs 16 in moving the catch pieces to a retainingposition. Thus the greater the weight upon the carrier, the greater will be the retaining grip effected by the catch pieces 15, and the greater will be the force required to move them to a post releasing position. The power of the compensating springs 22 is so arranged in relation to the power of the springs 16 and to the weight of the carrier 14 and posts 13 that, when the Weight on the carrier is nil, or is below a predetermined value, actuation of the handle 17 in the appropriate direction will (by raising the release member 20) effect a release of the catch pieces and thereby admit of vertical adjustment of the carrier relative to the base. However, when the weight on the carrier exceeds the predetermined value similar actuation of the handle 17 will result in compression of the compensating springs 22 without moving the catch pieces to a releasing position.

By this means it is possible to ensure that adjustment of the carrier 14 cannot be elfected Whilst the index card trays are resting upon it, thereby minimising risk of damage or injury to an operative. However, if the handle 17 is moved to release the posts 13 whilst the trays are in position on the carrier, the posts will be released automatically as soon as the trays are removed.

Although the invention has been described in its application to only one article of furniture it will be appreciated that it can be applied in essentially the same manner to any article of furniture in which a load carrier is vertically adjustable relative to a base. Also instead of two posts 13, a single post, or more than two posts could be used.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

Means for adjustably connecting at least one vertical load-carrying post to a support relative to which the post is axially adjustable, comprising in combination with said post and support, a catch piece pivotally mounted on said support and provided with an aperture through which said post passes, spring means acting on said catch piece in the direction for causing it to assume an oblique service position relative to said post for gripping the latter and retaining it against axial movement relative to said support, and manually operable means for moving said catch piece against the action of said spring means into an out-of-service position in which said catch piece permits axial movement of said post, said manually operable means including a plunger arranged to act on said catch piece and slidably mounted on an actuating merm- 3 4 r e: a riedby aid. upport.v ni d ition l p ingme n ei re c s i ed in the file of h patent mounted between said plunger and said actuating member, so that movement of said actuating member is trans-' UNITED STATES PATENTS I mitted by said additional spring means to said plunger for 829,888 Pyle Aug. 28, 1906 enabling the latter to move said catch piece into its out- 5 836,303 Christensen Nov. 20, 1906 of-service position when the load carried by said post is 2,227,397 Lucker Dec. 31, 1940 insufficient to render said additional spring means in- 2,588,174 Spielburg Mar. 4, 1 952 efiiectiyeh 

